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Hook part 1

Roadhog's Chain Hook is pretty leathal, when used correctly. But how do you go about creating it in real life?

For me, the first thing I do when looking at creating any prop is to see what has been made in the past. What worked for others? How can I spend my time creating the best prop possible? Use other people's experiences and learn from them.

PatternIf I had time, I would create all of my patterns by hand. But you know what? If I find one online, that someone has clearly put their time into and that is fit for purpose, I'm not against buying a pattern. At the end of the day, things like scale can be tricky, so if I am able to download a pattern I'm all for it. For Roadhog's hook I came across a pattern by Evil Ted. I was ablt to quickly download a pattern and get straight to crafting. The sizing was perfect and I didn't need to fuss. For $3.00, I'm not going to complain. I highly reccomed looking at his other patterns as well as his youtube videos. If you're looking to see a Master of the craft, check him out. For a link to the pattern, click here.

Materials

What should this be made from? I don't have a 3D printer, so although this works for a lot of people, I'lkl have to do it the old fashioned way with EVA foam. EVA Foam was my go-to when I was making my Tracer cosplay, so I figure I'll stick with what I know. Where do I purchase such a thing? Luckily a family member has a Costco card, so I use the interlocking EVA mats they sell. They aren't always the easiest things to use as thye only have one smooth side, but they work well for me!

So this would make up the top part of the hook. For the handle, I want something more stable, so I ehaded over to my local hardware store and bought some pipe. A quick saw down to size and voila! The perfect handle.

Here is the hook currently. I started by tracing out the Hook pattern - out of respect for Ted's work, I'm not going to post up an image of this - onto EVA foam mats. I ended up cutting out three and gluing them together with ALPHA THIXOFIX. Last Cosplay I used a glue gun, which was time consuming and, when worn in high heat, started to actually melt when I was wearing the cosplay. This time, I'm not taking any chances!

Once the glue had dried I traced the pattern back onto the hook and started hacking away at it with a craft knife. I went through a lot of blades. EVA foam seems to blunt blades extremly quickly. Once the shape started to take form I got braver with hacking more and more foam away.

As you can see, it's very rough currently. The next stage should smooth things over, when I get out the heat gun and one of my favourite materiels to work with, worbla!